For the avid readers here at Hardware Canucks, you might already recognize this heat sink. For any enthusiast that is familiar with the high-end air coolers on the market, you will definitely recognize this heat sink. Over the past few months, the buildup of the new Intel i7 processor release has gotten the computer enthusiast market in a frenzy. New motherboards, new chipsets, new socket, new processor, and of course; new processor cooling. For a long time now, the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme - and its variants - has been the big bully on the block in regards to processor cooling capabilities.

The Ultra-120 eXtreme Black and Ultra-120 eXtreme Copper are the latest derivatives of this already excellent heatsink but with the release of the Intel i7 processor and its new LGA 1366 socket, Thermalright had to adjust the Ultra-120 eXtreme. Well, the heat sink didn't get any refinements but the accessory package has. Under an all new title of Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT, the same powerful CPU cooling heatsink gets upgraded with a new mounting bracket to accommodate the LGA 1366 socket, and a new fan retention system.

In fact, unlike previous generations of the Ultra-120, the new Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT is fully equipped with a fan and ready for action right out of the box. We will be testing the performance of this "new-old" heat sink on a well equipped Intel i7 965 Extreme processor. The goal of this review will be to see what gains can be had by the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT over the stock Intel i7 cooler and which fan configuration is the ideal for our test setup. This newest generation of quad core processors are the hottest yet and adequate cooling is an absolute must for a stable overclock. We will soon find out how this legendary heat sink handles the highest heat load we can throw at it.